Hosting your Website?

In the next article are reviews and links to web building programmes such as Wordpress and Blogger which offer a one-stop website building programme with relatively easy to use templates and free hosting (an internet address where people can find your site).  There are also less extensive but much easier to use web-build programmes such as Wix,Weebly and Zoho - reviewed there too. But first, let's begin at the beginning with self build.

Hosts
The content of websites is seldom kept on your computer but actually lies in electronic form elsewhere - on a host computer.  So if you want to self-build using Dreamweaver or a similar web-building package you will need to find a host for your new website.  This is a space for it to exist in cyberspace.  The services mentioned above come with free hosting but if you do want the challenge and freedom to build and host yourself, then there are some free host sites listed and reviewed at bestfreewebsites.  The disadvantage of free hosts is they can be slow to download for your visitors, and can be unreliable (ie disappear occasionally) and lose you visitors.  Be warned too that many free hosts will charge indirectly by putting adverts on your site, which can spoil the look.

So if you choose to build a website independently and need a more reliable host, they generally charge a fee for holding your website (anywhere from 40 to 150 Euro per year plus).  In return you get sufficient space for your content and an uninterrupted, advert free service.

Domain names
A domain name - a virtual postal address for visitors to find your site, will also provide the url, or uniform resource locator, of your subsequent pages and posts.  Many self build sites (including Wix, Wordpress, blogger etc) come with free domain names, but they are usually a sub-domain of the larger company and therefore not so good to remember, clumsy for advertising and not so visible to the internet search engines.  If your site is a hobby or family site, then that is fine.  But if you have a business or larger community project to promote you really need a distinct domain name that is your web identity.  So when a free website building service asks you to get a domain name or you choose to use a better address yourself, you should build that cost into your overall budget.  To get that you will need to go shopping. 

Cost of a domain?
Costs can be high, but shouldn't be.  Some cheap to build sites make money on domains or hosting costs, so check out the overall prices of all three before committing yourself.  Some can charge 50 to 150 euro for the privilege of a domain name, but a fair price now is about 10 dollars per year (9 euro).  The market leader and a popular place to shop for value is Go Daddy which offers good rates and reliability. 

Ready to go?
So if you are ready to look at the many excellent self build options out there follow this link to part two!